ECS Storage In Alibaba Cloud

In this blog, we will explain to you the basics concepts about ECS storage in the Alibaba cloud.

CLOUD DISK IN ALIBABA CLOUD

  • In Alibaba cloud, ECS uses cloud disk as the System and Data disk.
  • The cloud disk is based on the Apsara Distributed File system (Pangu) with three redundant copies stored separately on different physical servers under different switches.
  • It provides high data reliability also it supports disk mount & un-mount.
  • Currently, there are two types of cloud disks are available in the Alibaba Cloud Environment. They are Ultra Cloud Disk & SSD Disk.
  • It does not support cross-zone mounting.
  • Cloud Disk can be mounted to only one instance at a time. Users can decide to release the disk along with the instance (or) not.

SSD Vs ULTRA CLOUD DISK

  • Cloud disk will have maximum IOPS, throughput and Access latency compare to ultra cloud disk.
  • Solid State Disk will be mainly used for medium and large relational databases.
  • Ultra cloud disk will be used mainly for Small DB’s in the development and testing environment.

STORAGE DISK SNAPSHOT

  • ECS disk snapshot is a copy of the data on the disk at a certain time. In can be stored in OSS (Object Storage Service)
  • Snapshot is a very useful feature in ECS.
  • Users can use automatic task policies to create snapshots automatically.
  • The system disk snapshot can be used to create a custom image file. The image file can be used to quickly create a duplicate ECS instance.
  • Data disk snapshots can be used to create a new disk containing exactly the same data.

HOW ECS CLOUD STORAGE SNAPSHOT WORKS

ECS Storage in Alibaba Cloud
  • The first snapshot will be the complete backup of the data.
  • Only the changes will be added in the second snapshot.
  • In the third snapshot, only the changes that are done after the second backup are included.
  • Changed parts are indexed with application numbers.

ECS DISK IMAGE IN ALIBABA CLOUD

  • ECS disk image is a template that includes pre-installed software and related configurations.
  • There are three types of images are available in the Alibaba cloud environment. They are System Image (Public Image), Marketplace Images and User-defined (custom) Image.
  • System Image – Alibaba cloud provides the mainstream distribution of Windows and Linux.
  • Marketplace Image – It has some software (or) value-added services that are pre-installed on this image.
  • User-defined (custom) Image – It can be created from the system disk snapshot of ECS instance. This image can be used to create massive replications of such ECS instances.
REFERENCE

https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/doc-detail/25383.html

Thanks for reading this blog. We hope it was useful for you to learn the basic ECS storage concepts in the Alibaba cloud.

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